Rocket Car

Introduction: Rocket Car

This is an awesome rocket car that we made in our physics class. Its easy and way fun.

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Step 1: Materials

You need a hotwheel or matchbox car, a rocket engine (used C in this project), a hollowed bic pen or sturdy straw, wire, a long 2x4, 2 L brackets, and hot glue.

Step 2: Making the Rocket Car

In whatever way you want, hot glue the rocket engine to the car. Make sure it is secure so it will stay attached to car when it is launched. Now add the straw or hollow pen to the top of the car with a lot of hot glue.

Step 3: Create Track

Now you need to make the track. You can do it any way you feel like, but this is how we made it our first try. This way got the job done, but it didn't work very well. We put a long 2x4 as the track. We attached L brackets at each end and run a wire through each bracket along the track. We also put photogates along the track to gather data.

Step 4: Launching Rocket Car

Attach the car to the track by putting the wire through the pen on the car. Put the igniter in the rocket and we ran the wire to a car battery. We touched the wires to the car battery and the rocket car took off and hit the end. With this track though, the car would fly off the track and break the wire or fly around the track.

Step 5: New Track

We made a new track with two thick wires running down the track and the car ran perfect. We also put binder clips with tape around them on the top of the cars so the photogates could pick up the car better. We got perfect results almost every time and the car never left the track. We found out the cars get up to over 100 miles per hour. I did not get data for my specific car because we did not have time to run through all the cars in class and we didn't get ours in.